VESA shows DP and USB-C at SID

June 2015 – At SID Display Week in San Jose we met with VESA to get an update on Display Port. The first demo they were showing was the new interface with the USB-C connector. This single port supports 4 lanes of display port and USB 3.1 protocol including power. The connector does not support USB3.1 and 4K displays at this time, but that development is in progress. The USB-C to display port connection will most likely be seen in hubs with the USB function. Direct cables that support 4K and 5K display modes will be available with just the power charging capability of the USB spec.

USB C to Display Port Adapter Details

They were also showing their new version (spec 2.0) of the Display Stream Compression. This is a 3:1 visually lossless compression technology. The system has been implemented in hardware for demonstration purposes as a Xilinx based encoder. The design currently has a handbuilt core that is being updated to be a fully synthesizable.

On the embedded DP side, there is an update on the local frame buffer. The new specification allows for a low power control that uses under 0.5A down from 1.5A. Part of this power reduction is from the implementation of selective update for motion. On internal or embedded displays, the system can set up to only write changes in the display on a primarily static image on a frame by frame basis. This is a major advancement for power savings for these displays as most content does not have full frame pixel changes. This allows efficiency with the display to be in alignment with most of the CODECs currently being used.